Goodbye Poster
by Famirad
Summary: [One shot] Maya Fey finds that leaving your friends is one of the hardest burdens to bear. Spoilers for PW: AA.


**Goodbye Poster**  
by Famira Damaris

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Phoenix Wright.  
**Author's Notes**: A one shot I wrote to use as a potential writing sample (I was considering apping Maya Fey for a livejournal RPG). Spoilers for the first PW game, and some minor references to the second case from JFA.

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Goodbye Poster  
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It was one of the hardest choices Maya Fey had to make, going back.

Okay, so that wasn't one hundred percent true. The choice itself was easy to make because Maya knew she had to go back to Kurain Village in order to complete her training. But that didn't make it any easier to actually carry it out. Writing that letter to Nick was hard, really hard, and she'd spent a long time hunched over his desk trying to think of what to write, nibbling unconsciously at the end of the pen. _Sorry, but I gotta abandon you 'cause I was useless the other_ _day_ didn't really seem like the best thing to write and she'd chewed her way through several of Nick's pens as she stared at the paper and waited for the words to come.

What should she say?

Maya glanced over at the couch. Nick was sprawled all over it in yesterday's trial clothes, one leg slung up over the couch's arm, his rumpled tie loose around his neck and snoring. Maya couldn't help a smile despite herself. He was the first person she'd met who could actually out-snore Mia, although he always insisted he never, ever snored. Mia used to say the exact same thing. It still hurt to think about what happened to her sister, and while Mia wasn't completely gone – she could still be brought back through spirit channeling – Maya had to deal with the fact that _she_ couldn't speak to her big sister personally. Anyway, she had to think on the positive side. Like, for example, _Nick_ got to speak with Mia all the time and he always told her what happened while Maya was gone and her big sis was in. So it was almost like Mia was back if…she ignored the fact she couldn't see her face to face; oh and she had to hear about her through Nick. Like a game of spirit Telephone.

Well, it could be worse, Maya thought. Most people didn't even get that much with their deceased relatives.

She got up to stretch, working out the sore spots in her back and knees from being bent over so long, and tiptoed past Nick into the other room. It wouldn't take long to pack her stuff, but she didn't want to wake him up and then have him asking why she was sneaking around and what was she doing with her suitcase anyway? _I'm not running away. I'm not!_ No, she was only sneaking around in the dark like some kind of cat burglar – not that she had anything against cats – and planning to leave without even saying goodbye. She'd have to say this looked an awful lot like running away. Fumbling around in the dark, Maya felt around for her clothes and folded them as quietly as possible, freezing when the beads of her necklace suddenly clacked together, and half-expecting Nick to appear in the doorway.

The snoring went on, as steady before.

Maya breathed a sigh of relief as she tiptoed back, setting her suitcase near the door and making sure she still had the train ticket to the mountains. One-way trip. She'd really miss Nick, but the ticket tucked into her sleeve reminded her that she had to do this. She couldn't be a good friend and help Nick out on his job if she couldn't even do hers. Useless. Right now she was scared that she'd be useless to Nick, and Mr. Edgeworth, and just end up as so much deadweight like she had been in this last case. It was time to buck up and train, train, train. Hopefully the next time she was back here, she'd be a real spirit medium and then she'd _really_ be able to help.

All that was left now was to write a note explaining why she wouldn't be here when the sun rose.

Biting down extra hard on the fresh pen she'd borrowed from the desk, Maya flicked on the flashlight again and began to write.

_Good morning, Nick_, she started, _you were really impressive yesterday…_

It didn't take as long as she expected. The hardest part was actually getting started.

_Goodbye, Nick. _

Maya folded the letter over. She wouldn't be gone forever, she told herself. And while she _had_ said good-bye when she hadn't meant to – adding that sense of it being _final_ – she'd crossed her fingers while she wrote it so it wouldn't count. It wouldn't be permanent. Looking for a place to put the letter, she spotted Nick's jacket, dropped on the floor right before the defense attorney crashed after a night of partying. Maya bent down and picked up the jacket, fumbling with it until she found the pockets. She slipped the letter into one, leaving the end of it peeping out so that Nick couldn't miss it, and left it draped on the desk.

That should be it, shouldn't it? Maya thought hard. She didn't want to forget anything. Clothes? All packed. Ticket? Still here (she hadn't dropped it yet). Funny, it felt like she was forgetting to do something, only she already had her stuff on her and -

Oh yeah!

She'd been trying to get _that_ up on Nick's wall ever since _that_ case. He'd always shot her down or caught her before she managed to sneak it in there, but she'd held onto this special poster for when the right moment presented itself. And _now_ happened to be that right moment.

Maya pulled out the poster from its "hiding" spot (Nick wasn't very creative with his hiding spots; he _always_ hid it behind Charlie the Potted Plant), and unrolled it. The street lights peeping through the shades fell across the Steel Samurai, a little wrinkled, but still in pretty good condition considering the manhandling he went through because Nick kept confiscating the poster each time she tried to hang it up. Trying to work as quietly as possible, Maya taped it up next to the bookshelf where it would have a good view of the office. Now future clients would see the Steel Samurai up there on Wright and Co.'s walls the second they sat down, and they'd have no choice but to think that Nick could always win, just like the Steel Samurai!

Assuming Nick didn't get any funny ideas and try to take it down.

Maya made sure to stick on plenty more tape.

_Just_ in case.


End file.
